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The time is spring, the year is 1961 and president Kennedy has sent 400 special forces into South Vietnam. This was the start of a new era in United States history as well as the beginning of a literary revolution. A time when books had powerful views, and songs were of peace or of governmental corruption, and plays or movies were about gruesome wars in strange jungles. This was a time to express reality in words. Then came the press.
All of the governments secrets and lies were exposed. Only a free and understanding press can effectively expose deception in government. [Justice Hugo L. Black 1 ] on the release of The Pentagon Papers. The people were torn. Some wanted to know, and some liked their own worlds of denial. Still even today there are people who say that we never entered into the Vietnamese conflict.
Others are living proof, walking aftershocks in the form of P. O. Ws and victims of the chemical agent orange. All of these people were changed forever. People who wake up in fear due to flashbacks of seeing their friend shot and killed two feet away from them. This is Vietnam, and these are reflections of the times.
One of the most influenced areas of literature is drama. Movies that show portrayals of the conflict in Vietnam flood the box offices. For instance 1995 s Dead Presidents depicts the gruesome truths of the war. All the drugs and deaths are shown in raw, uncensored reality. This movie paints a picture of how people were turned into killers, boys fresh out of high school forced to kill or die. This is as dark as it gets in American history.
Another look at Vietnam is Winston Grooms movie Forest Gump (1994). It illustrates how many people entered the army thinking that it was all fun and games. They come to realize that it is much more than that. The characters are shown spending their days cleaning out foxholes and roaming through the fierce jungle. Also demonstrated in this movie are the aftershocks of war. There are hospitals filled with people wounded by bombs and tree snipers.
The captain in the movie, who is also Forests friend, is transformed into a vagrant alcoholic after losing his legs in an ambush. It is not as intense but still true to form. Some movies that would not usually be considered literature are in fact some of the most powerful insights into the brutality of war. Aside from the shame and guilt caused by the Vietnamese War, people can still show well-deserved pride in two nationwide achievements. The primary accomplishment is the anti-war movement that so many Americans have joined in.
The second achievement is the literature created by the war; literature of which Vietnam veterans have became the main creators. A few of such veteran writers include poets Bruce Weigl, John Bakban, W. D. Ehrhert, Marilyn McMahon, and Yusef Komunyakaa. Also fiction writers Larry Heinemann, Tobias Wolff, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Guitar Hartford (Author responsible for the book that the movie Full Metal Jacket was based on).
One of the most widely known is Tim OBrien. OBrien had an active role in both the anti-war movement and the literary revolution. During this period he also wrote fiction as well as nonfiction pieces. His contribution to the literature of the war has been exceptional (Bruce Franklin internet).
It started in the beginning with the book If I Die in a Combat Zone (1973), an autobiographical look at the lives of soldiers in the war. Present throughout all of his work is a strong focus on the government's denial of the war. This denial has been the base of many of Obrien's work. One of the most intense chapters in If I Die is called Escape.
It shows how the author knows that if he kills anybody he will be compromising his own soul and beliefs. The only reason he participated in the war was because he was a coward. I am afraid of running away I fear what might be thought of me by those I love I fear the loss of my own reputation I fear being thought of as a coward. I fear that even more than cowardice itself (OBrien in Going After Cacciato). Casting himself as the character John Wade, he has strong recollections of the war he was so against. The final area of literature to be enriched by the Vietnam War is poetry and song.
Appearing all over the world are emotionally fueled poets and songwriters poets like Bruce Weigl who writes in his poem Rapture, Near Khe Shan by the quang Tri river Poems like this offer a look at what it was like to be on the front line. Different kinds of poems share different feelings about the war. Men were returning in plastic bags from Vietnam this poet was in the war dreaming of his own bloody death. (Antler) Another well-tapped region is song. Songs like Rooster by Alice in Chains, or Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine, even older songs like For What its Worth by Buffalo Spring Field. They send a message to the generations about Americas dark past. The songs by Rage are so high powered and emotionally charged and front man Zach de la Rocha wasnt even alive then.
It just shows how if enough people believe in something strongly enough it can stay alive for decades. Vietnam one of the most violent and extensive wars in American history. It was also one of the most influential. It has spawned over thirty years of songs, books, movies, and poems. Literature about scandal, death, peace, and love from a people eager to become enlightened and know the truth. This is a brief summary of their legacy.
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Research essay sample on Anti War Movement American History
